VIDEO: Leadership, Innovation and Disruption

How do today’s leaders invite and nurture innovation in today’s business environment?

In this video, Charla Griffy-Brown, PhD, Professor, Information Systems, interviews Ed White, MBA, Owner, de Novo Consulting, about leadership and innovation in today’s business environment. De Novo Consulting specializes in strategic planning, facilitation, and leadership coaching. White was formerly with Alaska Airlines for 39 years. The interview was filmed May 19, 2012.

Interview questions include:

What are the big questions leaders should be asking themselves about business in today’s environment?

How does a leader invite openness?

What was the airport of the future project?

How do you start innovation when a company has a long-standing history of doing things a certain way?

What role do you think values-centered leadership plays in business innovation?

How do you keep innovation going?

What are the five perils you would caution leaders about as they try to capture value and innovation?

How do you deal with risk in the context of innovation and getting senior executives involved?

About Ed White

Before starting de Novo Consulting, Ed White was with Alaska Airlines for 39-years. His career with Alaska Airlines began in 1972 in Gustavus, Alaska. After working a number of frontline positions, he was awarded his first management opportunity in 1977, which led to various management positions and promotion to an executive role in 1987. During that time his involvement and contribution to Alaska Airlines was diverse and significant:

Leading customer service, the company received 24 nationally recognized awards for superior customer service

Responsible for a team of as many as 6500 employees

Implemented the first comprehensive financial management capabilities for the company’s largest operating division

Extensive involvement in labor relations.

Led the inter-divisional team that invented and implemented “Airport of the Future,” creating an industry-leading airport check-in process

Demonstrated leadership skills with employees as Alaska grew from a little known regional airline to the 9th largest air carrier in the nation

In addition to Alaska Airlines, Ed has worked with, or on, numerous non-profit, customer advisory, and industry boards. He is currently serving on the board for Rainier Christian Schools of south King County. He has been on both the design and execution side of strategic planning.

Charla Griffy-Brown, PhD, is an associate professor of information systems at the Graziadio School of Business and Management. In 2004, Dr. Griffy-Brown received a research award from the International Association for the Management of Technology and was recognized as one of the most active and prolific researchers in the fields of technology management and innovation. A former researcher at the Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development in Tokyo, she has also served as an associate professor at the Tokyo Institute of Technology. Dr. Griffy-Brown graduated from Harvard University, is a former Fulbright Scholar, and holds a PhD in technology management from Griffith University in Queensland, Australia. She has worked for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center and has taught innovation/technology management courses in Australia, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Japan. She has also served as a consultant for the United Nation’s Global Environmental Facility and the European Commission.

2012 is shaping up to be the year of global political change with important changes in the government in Russia, France, Italy, and of course the upcoming presidential election here in the United States. How will financial markets be influenced by such political turmoil and how can investors prepare?

Since 2004, the stock market environment has changed in ways that make it more important than ever to understand the relationship between politics and stock market behavior. Unlike the 2004 article that did not address the above in detail, this article will attempt to do so.

A CEO’s primary duty is to allocate capital to its highest and best use, this report ranks CEO performance of 125 of Northern California’s largest companies according to their ability to earn returns above their investors’ required return.

What accounts for owners selling items for more or less than they are worth? Do sellers and buyers see the value of an item in the same way? Can a third-party agent impact the selling price of an item to net the seller a higher profit? This article offers some surprising answers.

An implicit challenge is to coordinate the efforts of groups with different interests to realize expected gains. This means that acquisitions quickly go from numbers to considering the impacts on people, as achieving synergy requires clear communication of the implications of an acquisition to those impacted.

Decisions involving issues of sustainability tend to include an array of objective attributes along with highly subjective value judgments. Managers must find a way to factor qualitative attributes such as environmental, social, and ethical impact into the decision-making process.